Oil train derails in Interbay in Seattle, no spills

From:  Seattle Times 

by Lynda Mapes

A BNSF investigator photographs the scene where a locomotive and four cars carrying crude oil went off the track beneath the Magnolia Bridge in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood early this morning. (Photo by Mike Siegel / The Seattle Times)

A train carrying nearly 100 cars of crude oil went off the track beneath the Magnolia Bridge in Seattle’s Interbay neighborhood early this morning.

Nothing leaked when five of the train’s 102 cars went off the track about 2 a.m., said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas. The derailment posed no public threat, he said.

The train, going slower than 5 mph, was pulling out of the BNSF rail yard when the wheels of the second of two locomotives in front went off the track. A car loaded with sand also went off the track, Melonas said.

The next three cars, filled with crude oil, also derailed. The first car was leaning at a 45-degree angle, the second at a 20-degree angle and the wheels of the third car where just off the track, Melonas said. The tank cars carry an estimated 28,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil each.

No one was injured.MORE